With the rapid development of Internet and mobile technologies, a large number of software applications have been developed for different types of smart devices. Such software applications typically implement and present to users various information record lists such as a contact list, an email list, a message list, etc. A user of a smart device can search an information record by navigating through an information record list. It is difficult, however, for the user to locate a target information record by navigating through a long list of information records, which results in low efficiency in searching. Some known software applications implement a search bar to enable a search function for the information record lists. Such a search bar, however, typically occupies a fixed portion of display space in the user interface, which might be wasteful when the search bar is not used by the user.
Thus, a need exists for a method and apparatus that can enable an intelligent and efficient searching mechanism without sacrificing display space of a user interface.